


Mementos

by misereremolly



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Character Death Fix, Ficlet, M/M, Some sadness and some hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 15:47:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13954851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misereremolly/pseuds/misereremolly
Summary: Paul receives Hugh's farewell recording. Hugh finds it later.





	Mementos

Paul receives Hugh’s farewell holographic message when he returns from Paris. He’d just set foot in the quarters they’d shared for the first time since losing Hugh when the door chimed and some hapless Ensign was there handing him a little holographic unit and reciting the official scripted message of condolence. Paul didn’t say a word; he hardly glanced up long enough to see the kid scurrying away. He’s not sure why he’s so surprised to receive a farewell message; Starfleet is a dangerous business and Hugh’s a conscientious person, of course he would have recorded one and put it on file.

Several shots of bourbon later and well past drunk, but he’s still not ready to watch it. He’ll never be ready to watch it. Paul grabs some tools and, not caring at all that it is technically illegal to do so, disables that horrible pinging reminder alarm. He pitches the little unit into the back of Hugh’s closet.

…

The day after he returns, Hugh takes a moment to straighten up his closet and finds the little unit buried under a bunch of clothes that had fallen from (been pulled off of?) their hangers. He presses back the tears that involuntarily come to his eyes when he realizes what he has in his hands – he’ll never get used to encountering these little _memento mori_ , these records of his own death. Turning the unit over, he notes scorch marks and scrapes on the underside and takes it out to the living room, plopping it down on the coffee table with eyebrows raised in question.

Paul takes the unit in his hands, turning it over. “I think that…maybe I always believed, or I always knew that you would come back. That this,” he dropped it back on the table, “wasn’t farewell. And it made me so angry at times, when it felt like everyone else had just given up on you.”

Hugh sat next to him and they leaned into each other as they stared into the unit’s reflective black surface. After a few moments they dragged their gazes away from the table, looking into each others’ eyes, fingers interlacing, breathing coming into synchronization. Paul’s other hand came up to his chest, right over his heart, and Hugh mirrored the action.

_Memento vivere_ , Hugh thought, as they carefully, softly, hopefully smiled at each other.


End file.
